Darwinism in Latvia: public attitude, popularization, and ideological use | Darvinisms Latvijā: sabiedrības attieksme, popularizācija, ideoloģiska izmantošana
2009
Brāzma, G., Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia)
The year 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of publication of his major work "The Origin of Species". Darwinism, more than any other scientific theory, is closely related to deep issues concerning morality, religion and world-view. The paper deals with the attitude to darwinism in Latvian society and its popularization in mass media. Several public surveys show that less than a half of Latvian population accept evolution, while there is a widespread acceptance of creationism - the denial of the theory of evolution. So far little attention has been paid to research on social representation of science - the way how scientific ideas such as darwinism are perceived in society. Latvian mass media, including the largest daily newspaper, used Darwin's anniversary largely as an opportunity to attack religious world-view. At the same time the views of scientists who consider darwinism as compatible with religion are virtually unrepresented in the Latvian public discourse. It is likely that these tendencies of oversimplification encourage the public to associate darwinism with the extreme form of materialist and atheist worldview and turn it to creationism (or some other form of anti-science) as the only possible alternative.
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